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Crashing Memory 2.0: False Memories in Adults for an Upsetting Childhood Event

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Crashing Memory 2.0: False Memories in Adults for an Upsetting Childhood Event UC Irvine UC Irvine Previously Published Works Title Crashing Memory 2.0: False Memories in Adults for an Upsetting Childhood Event Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6vx8w81s Journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, 30(1) ISSN 0888-4080 Authors Patihis, L Loftus, EF Publication Date 2015 DOI 10.1002/acp.3165 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Applied Cognitive Psychology, Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 30:41–50 (2016) Published online 15 September 2015 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/acp.3165 Crashing Memory 2.0: False Memories in Adults for an Upsetting Childhood Event LAWRENCE PATIHIS1* and ELIZABETH F. LOFTUS2 1University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, USA 2University of California, Irvine, USA Summary: Previous crashing memory studies have shown that adults can be led to believe they witnessed video footage of news events for which no video footage actually exists. The current study is the first to investigate adults’ tendency to report memories of viewing footage that took place when they were children: the plane crash in Pennsylvania on 11 September 2001. We found that in a computer questionnaire, 33% indicated a false memory with at least one false detail. In a more detailed face-to-face interview, only 13% of the group described a detailed false memory. Familiarity with the news story, fantasy proneness, alcohol use, and frequency of negative emotions after 9/11 were all associated with a Persistent False Memory. Participants who had received prior suggestion were more likely to later report false memories in the subsequent interview. We discuss our novel results and the importance of the paradigm. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Memory distortion research has important applications in have focused on events that happened when the participants real-life cases in the law, clinical psychology, and other were adults. In the present study, we explore the phenome- areas. Some of these real-life cases have involved the distor- non by asking adults about an event that occurred in their tion of memory in children, in adults for recent events, and in childhood. We also investigate a number of other factors that adults for events in their childhood. To investigate both have not previously been examined in crashing memory applied and theoretical issues related to such real-life phe- studies, such as the effect of prior suggestion. nomena, researchers have developed a number of memory distortion paradigms, including the misinformation effect Previous crashing memory studies (Loftus, Miller, & Burns, 1978), associative word lists (Roediger & McDermott, 1995), rich false memory (Loftus In the first crashing memory study, Crombag et al. (1996) & Pickrell, 1995), and imagination inflation (Garry, told Dutch participants there was videotape of a widely Manning, Loftus, & Sherman, 1996). One paradigm, the reported Boeing 747 crash into apartments in Amsterdam. ‘crashing memory’ technique (Crombag, Wagenaar, & van Although the actual plane crash had not been filmed, a Koppen, 1996), involves asking participants if they have remarkable 55% in Study 1 and 66% in Study 2 of the parti- seen footage for a widely reported news event, often invol- cipants reported seeing the footage and about 45% reported ving a crash (hence the name), when in fact no video footage details of its contents. A follow-up study demonstrated a of the event really exists. In response to such questions, similar phenomenon for a nationally important car crash. many participants in these studies appeared to develop false Ost, Vrij, Costall, and Bull (2002) asked participants if they beliefs and memories that they witnessed events they could had seen footage of the car crash in which Princess Diana not possibly have seen. was killed (when in fact none exists), and 44% of the sample The crashing memory paradigm has several advantages reported they had. that represented an important alternative way to measure The studies that followed reinforced these surprisingly memory distortion. The first advantage is that the event large percentages with different target news events and also involved a nationally important news story that was usually showed that social influence could boost false memory rates. personally important to the participants, thus allowing for For example, Granhag, Stromwall, and Billings (2003) the measurement of an upsetting memory that can be auto- found that 55% of respondents reported that they saw nonex- biographical in nature. The second advantage is the national istent footage of a well-known incident involving a sinking news event in question is somewhat of a collective experi- ferry and found that about 30% gave a false detail, suggest- ence across participants, and thus, their memory reports are ing that the false beliefs may have been accompanied by comparable across subjects. This is often not true in other memories. The results also showed that misleading com- studies where people are asked about their upsetting or ments from peers, when overheard by the participant, can traumatic memories, and different participants point to boost false memory rates (see also Ost, Hogbin, & Granhag, completely different types of events in their lives. The third 2006 for a replication using a different target news event). advantage is that the researcher can be reasonably confident Similarly, Wilson and French (2006) asked participants to that the event (viewing disturbing footage in this case) did recall the details of a bombing that had occurred in a Bali not take place. This certainty about the falsity of the memory nightclub, and 36% of participants reported seeing nonexis- is not always present in other autobiographical false memory tent footage, with nearly all of them reporting corresponding research (e.g., Loftus & Pickrell, 1995; Garry et al., 1996). memories for details they could not have seen. Despite these advantages, previous crashing memory studies These studies raised the question whether these false memory reports were being caused by the suggestion or whether they were spontaneously generated. An interesting *Correspondence to: Lawrence Patihis, Department of Psychology, Univer- sity of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406, USA. experimental approach by Smeets et al. (2006) found that E-mail: [email protected] the level of suggestiveness in the crashing memory questions Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 42 L. Patihis and E. F. Loftus affected the rates at which participants reported seeing non- (Ost et al., 2002; Ost et al., 2006; Granhag et al., 2003; existent news footage of the assassination of Dutch politician Smeets et al., 2009). With regard to personality-related mea- Pim Fortuyn (a famous figure well known to the Dutch par- sures, Ost et al. (2008) found that those scoring high on dis- ticipants). Interestingly, even with no suggestion (‘Do you sociation (Dissociative Experiences Scale, DES-C; Wright & remember whether there was a film…’; notice the indefinite Loftus, 1999) or fantasy proneness (Creative Experiences article ‘a’), 27% of participants indicated they had seen the Questionnaire; Merckelbach, Horselenberg, & Muris, 2001) footage of the assassination, although only 6% reported were more likely to give definitive details of nonexistent actual false details. With false suggestion (‘Did you see the footage (of the bus moving in the London bus bombings). amateur film of the Fortuyn shooting?’; notice the definitive These measures relate to an ongoing debate as to whether article ‘the’), the false reports were much higher: 63% with the most prone people who develop false memories are those 33% giving false details. These results demonstrate not only that are highly hypnotizable (related to fantasy proneness), a the importance of suggestive wording but also that false question that has historical roots in false memory production memories can occur even in the absence of misleading in hypnosis (see Patihis & Younes Burton, in press). The post-event information (spontaneously; cf. Mazzoni, 2002). question of whether dissociation is related to false memories Further research established the importance of familiarity is routed on an ongoing debate about the relationship, if any, of the news event to the participant. Ost, Granhag, Udell, between dissociation and memory (e.g., Lynn et al., 2014). and Hjelmsäter (2008) asked participants, 150 from Sweden Another area of interest is the possibility that participants’ and 150 from the UK to complete questionnaires about the tendency towards social desirability might explain the explosion of the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square, unusually high frequency of false memory reports in previ- London. UK participants were more likely to say they had ous crashing memory research (cf. McCloskey & Zaragoza, seen nonexistent computer-generated image of the explo- 1985). And finally, an individual difference that may also sion, and nonexistent television footage of the explosion, affect memory is alcohol consumption, which has shown compared with the Swedish participants (40% vs. 16%). This promise as a factor in other areas of memory distortion indicated that perhaps familiarity with the event, or indeed research (e.g., Garfinkel, Dienes, & Duka, 2006), but there the amount of exposure to the original news reports, might is a scarcity of data addressing alcohol in crashing memory facilitate the implanting of such memories. studies. In the current study, we investigate the role of these A
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